Written In The Scars
by BonneyQ
Summary: Kurogane was a cyborg left for dead two years ago, but when mechanic Levy McGarden finds him in the snow, this meeting will change both of their lives [Blanania's Humanoid!AU GaLe, Gruvia]


**AN:** This is based off on **blanania**'s _very_ original AU (that you can find the link to in my profile) and I wrote this with her consent. The change for Gajeel to be a _Cyborg_ instead of a _Humanoid_ was also consented by her.

I kinda went overboard, but… well. Nothing I can do now. haha

It's been a very long time ever since I wrote a GaLe fanfic, so, please, consider me being a complete rookie. LOL

**#**

**Written in the Scars**

**#**

_Just give me a reason  
Just a little bit's enough  
Just a second we're not broken just bent  
And we can learn to love again  
It's in the stars  
It's been written in the scars on our hearts  
We're not broken just bent  
And we can learn to love again_

**Pink – Just give me a reason**

**#**

On the thirty first day of October (the day the humans used to cherish it as the 'Witch's Day', if she was not mistaken) of the year 3142 by Earth's calendar at a planet called Fiore, a little human scientist called Levy McGarden, who had been living there for a year learning Fiorian technology, found something underneath the snow.

She and her partners, Droy and Jet, had been searching for a place where one of the battles from the Fiorian Great War, which stopped a year before Levy herself arrived at the Planet, and the three were looking for any kind of technological devices to survey to study so they could have a way to beat the Army.

They had found all kinds of junk at the actual battlefield, but that day, that thirty first day of October, Levy wandered off from her intended searching spot, to a place she was never before – which was very dangerous, considering that the geography and the cold winds blowing sometimes too strong to even get out of the base – and that afternoon, something shiny caught her eye by accident. Thinking it was just another piece of junk, Levy started digging and when a she saw the blue light, the mechanic immediately recognized as the type of battery used on droids and maybe they finally got something worthy finding but after a few moments of digging, she finally saw it, inside a pod.

A droid? Jackpot! The parts of it could be used for so many purposes…

"A Humanoid?" The woman exclaimed and she stared at the droid in front of her eyes. She could see some dark hair, his ears and nose were pierced and his eyes were closed. Levy took a moment to analyze its face and she couldn't remember a droid like him, but then again, she had been in Fiore for some time. "Droy, Jet." The blunette said through her comm. "I found something. Go back to the base and bring some rope, we're gonna need it."

While her friends were still on their way, Levy carefully dug around the pod and managed to open it, the glass flying up and falling a few meters away from them. So, that was an escape pod, wasn't it? Interesting.

Analyzing the droid once again, Levy asserted all its damages and… well, maybe they could salvage something, maybe the memory hasn't freeze over and maybe it contained real information about what Phantom Lord's next plans were. It's been years since it was there, but was worthy to try to recover its memory.

Once her friends arrived, they hooked the droid and pulled it up from its confinements, slowly. Levy could see that his left arm was gone and so did half of his left leg. The woman also noticed that he seemed to be wearing some sort of reinforced armor. Why the hell a droid would need to…

A strong pull shook it and Levy's heart almost stopped when the remnants of his arm fell. "Be careful! He's badly damaged!" She yelled over her shoulder – even though it was unnecessary since they all had comms.

When she returned her gaze to the droid, she didn't have the time to process the fact that a couple of red eyes were staring at her, since at the moment she turned, a hand caught her by the neck, squeezing even the thick fabric of her suit.

She couldn't speak, as its grip turned stronger by the second and all she could do was to try to open his hand and for a moment, she really thought she was going to die; after all, those red eyes had such a murderous intent that she actually thought that this was it.

A moment later, though, she was released as suddenly stopped working once again. Jet and Droy were by her side a moment later, asking her what happened and if she was alright and even though she was shaking and she was pumping adrenalin, a thought popped inside her head: bots did not have murderous intent and they certainly didn't have eyes with such expression.

They didn't find a robot, they found a man and he was a cyborg.

**#**

That night, as soon as they returned to the base, Levy rushed her friends to take the cyborg to the repair table, not at all fazed with what happened earlier. "He's a warrior type, Levy. He can be really dangerous. Are you sure…?" Jet asked and Levy nodded.

"I'll fix him." She smiled, grabbing a screwdriver. "Giving machines a new life isn't something Professor Mavis taught us all?" After that, neither men could actually argue with her line of thought; but it didn't prevent them to stick around while she worked with electric discs, just in case the cyborg woke raged again.

The first thing Levy did was to find the metal plate on the back of his head, knowing that a cyborg (and humans) would have most of its functions there and, after seeing that the processors that were wired inside his brain were intact, she connected it with her computer. While her computer was running a program on it, she started to work on his chest and she, after some tests, concluded without a doubt that it was a cyborg.

"Are you telling me that this guy was human before?" Droy asked, poking at the 'meaty' part of the cyborg and Levy slapped his hand away.

"He wasn't _human_ before." Levy gave her friend the stinky eye. "I am still trying to figure out his race. I mean, his lungs are capable of breathing pretty much any kind of air, his heart beats much faster than a human's and his body temperature is at its normal at 40°! Look at his eyes, they are _red_! He could be Gyastian, Wollen, Dbdoo or seven more races with those eyes alone. His ears are pointy just like ten alien races and his skin is thicker than expected from a human, giving him more Resistance to high and low temperatures and-" She stopped talking as the non-literal gears inside her head started to function as she finally connected the dots. "_Oh_, he was _definitely_ not human. That's why he could stay in the ice for so long." The blunette stared at the cyborg softly. "Well, aren't you a marvel?"

**#**

It took her two whole weeks to finally build him his left arm and leg and for the program to return his brain disc to its original status plus trying to save all of its data for further analysis later on.

During her inspection of its body, Levy found out a label on his wrist that called him 'Kurogane529' and she didn't think it was his name, but wouldn't know until he was awake; for that to happen, they needed to do it in a controlled room, of course.

The day they decided to wake him up – it wasn't unusual for a person to be subjected to an induced coma after being with life support for such a long time, plus, they had to recharge the battery that was lodged on his chest so he could properly function –, the blunette chose not to put his mechanic arm and leg just in case the cyborg went crazy again.

Jet and Droy were by each of his sides, holding stun guns as Levy carefully lifted the induced coma and waited for the cyborg to come to a few minutes later. Seeing that at the first time he woke up he nearly strangled her and, just like Droy said, Kurogane was a warrior type – the amount of weapons she found during her repairs was stunning – the guns were a necessity.

Levy saw Kurogane's eyes open and they were unfocused for a few moments before, clumsily because of the lack of an arm, Kurogane sat and tried to recognize where he was.

"Hey, calm down." Levy took a step closer to the bed and the man frowned, his pierced brows getting together in confusion as he stared at the three people in the white room with him and, after a moment, he narrowed his eyes. "You are in my repair shop, in Fiore. We found you in an escape pod a couple of weeks ago and we mean no harm, I swear." Kurogane studied the small woman and, apparently thought she was no threat, because he relaxed slightly, but still very aware of the two men holding the guns. "You are a Draconis, aren't you?" Levy asked kindly and the cyborg tilted his head to the side. "The red eyes and the pointy ears kinda gave it away."

"Dra…" Kurogane tried to process the word. "…conis?"

With a nod, Levy signed her friends to lower the guns and, with hesitance, they did. "Yes, from Draconalia." She informed him, knowing that the life support system inside the pod and the small coma would make anyone confused for a little while. "It was one of the planets' under Phantom Lord's reign and its population is now all throughout the galaxy but there are just a few of them free now. They fled from the planet when the Army bombarded it with dirty explosives. It won't be livable again for another two hundred years. Sorry."

Kurogane shrugged and looked down. "Don't remember much about it."

Levy took in his instance and gave the cyborg a moment to take the news about his planet. "My name is Levy McGarden." She said and took another step closer to him. "These are Jet and Droy." The mechanic pointed to her friends and Kurogane stared at them for a moment. "What's your name?" Tentatively, she reached for his hand, careful not to make any sudden movements but her approach startled the Draconis, who stared at the petite woman in question when she turned his hand to show him the inside of his wrist. "It says here that you are Kurogane529 but it doesn't sound like a name."

The cyborg shrugged once again. "It might as well be; I have it ever since I can remember."

Staring at him for a moment, Levy grabbed a marker from the back pocket of her pants and, kindly started to scribble something above the name. "Kurogane doesn't suit you. Let's just call you '_Gajeel_'." She said while finishing writing the name.

"Why?" Kurogane asked, curious, and staring at his new 'name'.

"It means '_special_' in an alien language." Levy smiled. "And you _are _special. Staying alive all that time inside the escape pod… Even with the life support system damaged, because, trust me, I went through it and it wasn't supposed to keep you alive this long. I even thought you were a robot when I first saw you because it wasn't possible that someone had survived all this time under snow even with a properly functioning pod."

Gajeel nodded. If this tiny human was telling him he was called that way from that moment on, it was fine by him. "Did you find another pod?"

"Another?" Levy let his hand go and frowned to the cyborg.

"Containing a female cyborg." He asked, and seeing the confusion on the three scientists' faces, he knew they hadn't. "Maybe she escaped."

"Was she your girlfriend?" Levy probed gently; fine that he was part of the Phantom Empire, but it didn't mean he didn't have time to find himself a Phantom Woman.

Gajeel snorted and, for the first time since trying to squeeze her neck, he didn't look like a bot. "No. We were deflecting to your side; we used to send information to the Counsil."

"_What?_" The three remaining people asked loud.

"Ameona and I were helping the Resistance from inside. That last day of war, we uploaded to our discs…" His eyes got wide as he put a hand on the back of his head where he had the head implant. "Where the…?"

Levy was quick to reassure him. "I took it out, it was a little damaged, and I didn't start on repairs yet. I took it out and I took of the program the Phantoms put in you to make you go under their commands, I didn't know you were already free willed."

"I wasn't." Gajeel said. "Not when we were in battle mode. After the fights they would lower the commands and I could think freely and have moments of clarity."

"That's why you attacked Levy?" Jet asked and the cyborg frowned. "You don't remember?"

Moving his red eyes over her tiny form, assessing what he might have done to her and, under his excruciating look, Levy suddenly felt uneasy. "No. I mostly don't when controlled."

"It's okay now; I took it out and put your disc as its default setting. No one else is controlling you." The woman said and, she saw the subtle widen of his eyes, the way he touched where the disc was on the back of his head and how his lips were in a thin line.

"I am… free now?" Gajeel asked Levy, who nodded.

"Well, yes. I mean," she blushed with the intent of his stare on her and Levy wanted to hit herself, what was wrong with her? That man tried to kill her two weeks before, was a double agent for the Resistance and was from another species! Of course, interspecies relationships were not a taboo for hundreds of years, but Levy always thought that she was a traditional girl and would end up with a human, like her mother before her. _Whoah. Hold the horses, McGargen. He's just _looking_ at you_, she thought. "I repaired your arm and leg and if you want to leave, you can, but we are part of the Resistance as well. You could stay here until the next pick-up ship comes to get you to the central, where you probably would have more skilled people working on repairing your memory disc and to find your friend

"What is she like, by the way?" Levy frowned. "Maybe I can put a friendly alert on her and if anyone from the Resistance finds her, we'll know she means to help."

Gajeel hesitated for a moment and thought it over. It wouldn't hurt to try and find Ameona and this tiny human seemed as if she was genuinely trying to help. "She's Uateri, with the blue hair they all seem to have; her right arm is mechanic, and so is mechanic under the knee of her left leg."

"And her name is… _Ameona_?" A very fat man asked the cyborg.

"It was designated to her. Ameona413." Gajeel informed the man he recalled was named Droy. "If she survived, she will be trying to contact the Resistance. If she still hasn't…" He didn't need to finish the sentence for the others to understand his thought of her death.

"We'll check, don't worry."

"Now, that's the thing. The memory chip you took from the disc inside my brain was just half of what we got because it had too much data and we had to split it. She has the other half. You can't access it without her information." Gajeel had no idea why he babbled so much to the humans: he didn't even have sure if their story was true; but to be honest, they hadn't killed him; they took the disc off so he was free. It had been almost twenty years ever since he was free of Phantom.

"We'll send the alert to all of our friends to see if they heard of her." Levy assured him kindly, putting a hand on his forearm, trying to soothe the cyborg. "Don't worry, she probably got out." Gajeel stared at the woman curiously for the hundredth time that day, why was she being so kind? "You should rest, even though I put you to sleep for two weeks after we found you, but it will take a while for your metabolism to settle. Or not, I never actually met a Draconis before."

"We adapt easy." Gajeel informed her, suddenly feeling tired. "In a couple of days I'll be fine."

"Then, in a couple of days I will present you your new arm and leg." Levy grinned when he saw his expression of surprise. "I told you, this is my repair shop and I wanted to repair you. You haven't even noticed the translator on your ear, have you?" Gajeel frowned and raised his hand to touch his ear, where, indeed there was something that was a lot like a hearing device. "I knew you were not human and even we have a lot of languages and I wanted you to be able to understand me. You have been speaking in Draconis ever since you woke up and we" she pointed to herself and then her friends "have been speaking in Fiorian." Levy moved her hair from hiding her ear, showing him the same device on her ear. "I didn't know if you spoke the Intergalactic Language, which is still being settled, of if you spoke anything I speak, since we are from very different sides of the universe, so…" she tapped the device. "Problem solved." Levy took a step away from him. "Droy and Jet are going to help you get settle in one of the bedrooms, is that okay?"

Gajeel didn't seem to like the idea of being helped and so did the other men, but Levy just rolled her eyes. "Oh, stop the macho attitude, the three of you are ridiculous." She giggled and the cyborg tilted his head to the side, taking in her attitude and it confused him of how much he liked the sound, even though he had just met her. "Tomorrow I'll start working on your memory disc to see what I can do without your friend's and in a couple of days, I will put your arm and leg back. Thankfully none of the circuits connecting to your nerves were severed and I think you'll adapt quite nicely."

The cyborg nodded, suddenly feeling more tired than before, but before one of the guys could help him, Gajeel cleared his throat. "I… I apologize that I tried to kill you."

Levy smiled softly. "You had a program inside your disc that overtook you and everything you did. You didn't do it, _it_ did. I won't hold it against you."

**#**

Just as predicted, a couple of days later Levy installed the mechanical leg and, since it was a long process, she had to install his arm the next day, but at least he could move without the help and when Levy asked if he was alright with his new leg, Gajeel couldn't believe that it was actually a prosthetic. For ten years he lived without a leg and an arm and that was the first time he didn't walk with a limp and the next day, when she finally put his arm on, Gajeel stared at it in wonder when he moved his new fingers as if his arm was still there; with his old mechanic arm all he could do was to have half a function.

When he commented about it, Levy started to babble about how it was all about the quality of the mechanic. "…and then, usually people use Mett oil on the joints, because they think that just because it's more expensive it's better, but trust me, it is not. It clogs after a shorter time, that's why I use Yuur oil: it's half the price and the quality is much better for mechanic limbs, as you can see. Mett is great to put in door hinges, but for limbs? I'll go with Yuur every time!"

"You're incredible, you know?" Gajeel said as she kept working the final touches on his new metallic fingers. "I can't understand a word you are saying."

"It just bothers me when people try to convince me that Mett is better!" She huffed.

"I… I see…" Gajeel didn't really understand why she was so passionate about oil, but whatever she said, after all, she was the mechanic and his whole life he had been a controlled fool.

"Don't worry." She put a lock of her hair behind her ear and kept working after drying her forehead. "I'll make you feel like you never lost a limb. That's how good I am."

"Tch." Gajeel looked to his left. "You didn't have to save me. I was supposed to have died when my pod fell. And I attacked you. Why did you even…?" She couldn't finish the sentence, because a moment later, something hit his face and ten a metallic sound of something hitting the floor. Did she throw a – was that a wrench? – on his face?

"If you are not saying nice things, it's better if you just don't say anything." She narrowed her brown eyes in his direction and Gajeel wondered if she didn't fear him at all. "I wouldn't just let you in the snow and we would never know you have information that could help the Resistance to win, even if we have only half of it and need to take years to recover. It's better than nothing." Apparently, she finished with the repairs because she let go of his hand. "Some things are meant to happen and finding you was one of them." Levy looked up with a pair of the most beautiful brown eyes he's ever seen, full of hope and an innocence he hadn't seen in years. "Trust me, Gajeel."

Oddly, he did. The last person he trusted was Ameona and even then, it had been during battle after she saved his life even when her mechanic arm was failing and there he was: trusting that small female human who liked to talk about oil?

"Oh, by the way, if you don't like to be called 'Gajeel', you can decide to have another name. I just thought that being called Kurogane529 wasn't very nice." The blunette shrugged. "You are free to get whatever name you want now that you are free."

The cyborg thought about it. The name his parents gave to him wasn't used in twenty years and he was designated to be Kurogane529 once he was caught when he was just five and neither of those names brought him any luck. At least being Gajeel, so far, had been proving to be a step up from his previous life.

"No. I like being Gajeel so far." The Draconis said and the smile he receive as an answer made his heart do something weird, such as to skip a bit.

Having free will was proving to be rather challenging.

**#**

Jet and Droy didn't like to have Gajeel around, not that he cared, but he didn't want to start a fight when the little human had been so kind to him and if he ever caught those two imbeciles, he would decimate them without even think and the little human wouldn't like if he killed her friends, so, whenever they weren't poking at him, trying to find some way of access the data inside his memory disc, he was training or hiding out at the library.

"Do you like books? I love them." The blue haired girl asked him the first time she found him there, looking utterly bored and turning pages of one of the books. "It's rare to find actually printed ones, since most of them are digitalized, but I try to get as many books as I can."

"I have nothing else to do when you and your friends are not poking me." Gajeel gave her a pointed look and she knew that she and her colleagues had been really 'poking' at him while analyzing the mechanic organs he was implanted with while in Phantom and they were surprised of how well they were working. "But I can't read. I mean, I was taught how to, but only in Draconis. Your books look all blabber to me." He pointed to a book that Levy recognized as of Dbdoo origin. "I just stare at the pictures."

"Oh." She took a pair of glasses from inside her white coat and gave it to him, making the cyborg inspection the item with curiosity. "It has a software that recognizes the language and connects it with your disc, which is connected to your brain, so you'll think you are reading in your mother language."

Gajeel was surprisingly pleased with it. "Like I can hear you speak Draconis and how you can hear me speak Fiorian."

Levy smiled. "Exactly."

"Thank you." The Draconis nodded and put the glasses on, making her giggle, after all, they didn't fit him at all and suddenly, Gajeel felt his cheeks get warmer. "Shut up, Bookworm."

"Bookworm?" She giggled even more. "You are the one with reading glasses."

"_Because I have nothing else to do_." He roared and the scientist was actually startled. "I have been a warrior my whole life and for the past two years I have been inside an escape pod underneath snow, only alive because the life support didn't break, and I rested, I have new mechanical limbs that are pretty good, but all I am is a warrior and not fighting is driving me crazy! So crazy, that I actually come to the library to just turn pages so I can at least do something." He was breathing hard with his outburst; after all, he wasn't one to speak much.

It took her a few moments to answer him. "I… I am sorry, I never thought that you felt this way." Levy took a step closer to him – he had stood up while speaking – and put a hand on his forearm (the real one, not the mechanic) and Gajeel almost jumped with the touch, not used to physical contact that wasn't during a fight. "Listen, I know this is hard for you, but… the war is over here in Fiore and I know that you think that this is all you can do, but it's not. I can teach you about mechanics, if you are interested." The blunette informed him. "Just because you did something your whole life and are very good at it – and I assume that you were a very good soldier – it doesn't mean that you can't do anything else."

Gajeel frowned. "But… You took my memory disc off. How would I learn anything?"

"The old way: with your brain." She knocked on his forehead in a friendly way. "Usually we don't use discs for those things and it's not advisable, really. If you want to learn, be at my repair shop in the morning and I'll start teaching you the wonders of mechanics." Levy smiled softly. "And this place is big, you know. I am sure we can spare a room for you to punch a few sandbags a day to blow off some steam."

"I… that would be nice."

"Oh, don't thank me, this is for the benefit of us all: I don't want us to be on Fiore's News headline when you have enough and kill us all just because you were _bored_." She slapped his chest playfully, winked and, for the first time, she saw the side of his lips curl up in a half smile and that sight made her heart beat faster.

She wanted to see that again.

**#**

Gajeel was actually a very good study when it went down to mechanics and in no time he was quite agile in repairing some simple things and even though Jet and Droy didn't like to see them alone, they had their own things to do during the day, so the blunette and the cyborg had a lot of time to work on their own.

Levy learned a lot about him, even if she was the one who spoke more during their time alone; for instance, she knew that he was taken from Draconalia, alongside with another twenty kids, when he was five and he had been the only one who was still alive.

"The Draconis' are strong, stronger than most races. We can survive in pretty much anywhere." He informed the mechanic. "So, we were trained to be soldiers from the moment we were taken and at first, we were just soldiers." Gajeel told her while putting together a mechanic finger. "Some of the older Draconis there taught us about Draconalia while we were supposed to be sleeping. They taught us to read and tried to make us not forget about our culture.

"It was hard, though. I knew my dad was dead – he tried to fight the men who came to take me and my mother died giving birth to me – and it didn't make any sense, but I tried to learn it all because it was what he would want me to do: not forget where I came from and that the Draconis' are proud. Maybe that's why I joined the Resistance." He shrugged.

"Yeah, how did _that_ happen?" Levy took of the thick glasses she was wearing while working on his memory disc to repair it the best she could.

"A man came to me while Ameona and I were patrolling and he managed to override the control for some time. He was surprisingly convincing."

"What was his name?"

Gajeel thought for a moment. "Makarov something."

"He is the leader of the Resistance!" Levy exclaimed, surprised that the cyborg met with him, just like that. "He has been fighting this for as long as anyone can remember!"

"Yes." Gajeel nodded. "He said that Ameona and I were different from the other soldiers, that we fought the controls, and that's why they had to use a stronger wave on us. He tried to explain to me how he found us using some detector or something."

She nodded excitedly. "I bet it was a…"

"Please, stop before you start ranting about 'control waves', 'devices' and 'a thousand detectors that could do this'." Levy stopped on her tracks when he noticed that he was actually mocking her. Well, that was a step forward.

She put her hands on her hips as she stared at his back – he was still focusing on the finger – and Levy had to fight off a smile of her own. "_Excuse me_?"

Gajeel chuckled. "You rant. A lot." She threw her gloves at him and he laughed, a true laughter and Levy couldn't help but to laugh with him.

"Keep it on, buddy, and I'll dismantle your limbs." She tried to sound stern, but her giggles gave her away. "And you are having trouble putting a finger together; you wouldn't be able to put an arm together any time soon."

The cyborg turned around and crossed his arms above his chest and the amusement he had started to show whenever they were together explicit on his face as he stared at her with that smirk she learned to like. "Is that so?"

"That is so." Levy nodded.

He, then, walked towards her and stood close to the blunette, towering over her. When their eyes met, though, some of the playfulness was forgotten when he said with a husky voice: "Well, maybe I should stick around _you_ for a little while more until I've learned it all."

She could feel her cheeks get warmer, because she had some very non platonic thoughts running inside her head with that statement alone. It wasn't as she was around many men – Jet and Droy both developed a crush on her, but she only viewed them as friends – and it wasn't as if she didn't notice that, despite the fact that he lost his arm and leg, Gajeel was a very attractive man (that insisted on walking around shirtless more times than not, because it was 'too hot for his body to handle with clothes') and the fact that she was a little bit attracted to him didn't help to keep her cool when he was so close to her.

"I… Yes." She managed to choke, taking a step behind and bumping into the table. "You… You do that. Sticking around is good. Many things to learn yet, right? Oh, is this the time? I gotta go… do that… thing." She practically ran away from the repair shop before Gajeel could say anything else and once he was alone, he tried to figure out what happened.

His knowledge about women was very narrow, as most of the women he met were also controlled by Phantom and during the few times when they were successful on a task and were allowed to pursue a partner for a night, there was little talking involved.

Taking a deep breath, Gajeel could smell something different on Levy's scent. Draconis' had a high sense of smell and now that he was no longer being controlled, he could use it freely and what he smelled, hit him right on the lower part of his stomach. Was that…? Was she…?

Did Levy get _aroused_ by his proximity?

That thought made him feel hotter than he had been in forever; he had noticed that her scent was intoxicating and pushed it aside, after all, she was a kind little human that was helping him a lot when she didn't have to and he couldn't ruin it just because he thought she smelled too fine. Okay, so maybe she smelled more than fine and he had to control his actions around her to not let her see the effect she had on him, but he couldn't.

It would be so wrong for him to go after Levy. He was a killer, he had been a part of an army that slaved and killed 'inferior' races throughout the galaxy and even if he tried to redeem himself by working with the Resistance, his hands were still bloodied and Levy was too nice for him to taint.

Pushing the desire he had to follow her, Gajeel returned his attention to the mechanic finger he was working on. Better not think about things he didn't deserve.

**#**

Three weeks later they finally heard about Ameona413 and when Levy had knocked on the door of his room, breathless after the run she had to do to get him soon, Gajeel's red eyes widened when she told him that Ameona was on the communicator and she wanted to talk to him. He didn't want to put his hopes up, but when Levy ran back to the comm room, Gajeel ran behind her.

The moment he opened the room's door and he saw the hologram of the closest thing he had of a friend, he thought that his breath was stuck on his throat for a moment. With two dark haired men by her side Ameona stood wearing a thick dark blue coat that reached the ground and had white fur around the collar. Her hair was obviously longer as it was long enough that she braided to the side with a golden strand in between her braid and a golden band around her forehead – in Phantom she, much like any other woman, had to have the hair short – and even with the unusual clothes, he didn't forget about her blue eyes with that oddly narrow shape, her nose and cheekbones. That was Ameona.

Once she stepped inside the room and the comm could scan him and show his image to her, Gajeel saw her gasp. "Kurogane! It's true, then!" She was excited, that much was clear and he was shocked to hear her speak that way, the woman he remembered was as serious as they came; but then again, they were being controlled by an evil Army. "You are alive!"

"Fuck me!" He whispered to himself. "Ameona? You survived?"

"Yes." She laughed so freely, which surprised the Draconis even more. "And so did you." Gajeel noticed Levy not too far behind him, but at the moment, he was focused on the hologram of his friend in arms.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you!" He finally barked a laugh. Really, Life? Did he really get his friend back? And she looked very well, so she wasn't a prisoner? Even better!

"Oh, Juvia does, because she feels the same way!" The woman teared up and had to dry her cheeks. "Juvia waited for you to land next to her two years ago, but you didn't… She thought you didn't make it."

"We think that I was hit and fell, the snow covered my pod." Gajeel explained and then frowned. "Juvia?"

"Oh, that's my name." She smiled brightly. "It's Juvia Fullbuster now." Ameona pointed to the human on her left, a male with black hair that seemed to have the same age as the former Phantom soldier. "This is my husband, Gray." Said man nodded towards Gajeel, who nodded back in wonder; Ameona was married? "And this," she pointed to the older man on her right that looked a lot like an older version of Gray, "is my father-in-law, Silver."

"You got _married_?" That conversation seemed weirder and weirder by the second.

"Eight months ago_."_ She nodded, staring at her husband lovingly and even though the man continued to try to keep expressionless, Gajeel caught the curl of one side of his lips, that lasted just a second, but it was there. "Juvia landed in Yukia and she's been here ever since. She met Gray-sama here a couple of months after and it was love at first sight. At least for her."

"My son always had been a little slow." The older man chuckled and focused on Gajeel. "Mr. Kurogane-"

"His name is Gajeel now." Levy spoke for the first time and the cyborg was grateful for the correction, he didn't want to be called that by anyone else.

"Oh, alright, then." The man nodded. "Mr. Gajeel, I am Silver Fullbuster and I am King of Yukia." The Draconis was surprised with that piece of information and just then he noticed that, just like Juvia and her husband, Silver was wearing the same golden band. _Oh, fuck_. "And we have been a Phantom free planet for three years, even longer than Fiore has been, and we are an active party on the Resistance. Juvia-chan told me and my son about her part on helping out and how her information would only be available if she had _your_ memory disc. Is it safe?"

"It is, sir." Levy spoke, being the one who took it. "Once we recovered Gajeel from the snow, I took it out and I have been repairing it ever since and I am almost done. The data is useless if we don't have your daughter-in-law's too."

"I know." Silver sighed.

Juvia nodded. "We need to meet up to get the information together as soon as we can! Maybe Juvia can meet you at the Resistance's HQ?"

"The hell you will!" The man she presented as her husband protested, followed by the older man.

"Juvia-chan, you can't!_"_

"What? Why? What is happening?" Gajeel asked, confused, looking away from the hologram to Levy to see if she knew something.

"Father and Gray-sama are worried and trying to protect Juvia." She opened her heavy coat and Gajeel could see why the men were fussing over her: the bulge of her stomach did little to hide the fact that she was with child.

To say that he was surprised was an understatement. "What the…?"

The woman put a hand over her stomach. "Juvia is already five months along, and since we don't know how long a mixed human and Uateri will take to be fully developed, we don't know if we have four months or one until Juvia gets into labor. It varies with every pregnancy and how many traits it will receive from each race."

Gray stepped in. "The thing is: she can give birth at any moment, literally, because Uateri have pregnancies that are only six months along. If the baby is more Uateri, it can come sooner than we though and Juvia's body can be fooled to think that the baby is ready and she can get in labor." Her husband informed Gajeel while putting an arm around his wife's shoulders in a protective manner. "I know that this is important for the Resistance, but Juvia will _not_ be leaving Yukia until the baby is born."

"This is the heir of the throne, do you understand, right?" Silver asked calmly. "Even if it is for the Resistance, I can't jeopardize my line of succession. And even if I were not a king, Juvia-chan is carrying my grandchild and it's not safe for neither if she travels." Gajeel nodded, still in shock with the news. "What we can do is bring you and your mechanic here to Yukia, where you'll be safe and we can put both of your discs together and figure out Phantom's plans."

Gajeel looked towards Levy, asking her without words what she thought about that plan. He understood why Ame-_Juvia _couldn't travel to meet them and it was a sound plan.

"I go where the Resistance tells me to go." Levy shrugged. "And we need this information."

The cyborg stared at the little human and wondered if she knew what she was getting herself into, war was not easy and being fighting for twenty years, he knew what it could do to someone and Levy… she had something bright inside her that he didn't want her to lose.

Juvia took a long moment to stare at Gajeel and then gently asked the other people around them: "Can… _Gajeel_ and I have a moment?" When both of their rooms were cleared, the blue haired woman spoke softly. "I am glad you are alive."

"Yeah, me too." He scratched the back of his head. "And you are a _princess_ now, eh? Quite a step up from a soldier."

"Oh, shush." The Uateri chuckled. "Gray-sama is not the prince of the _whole_ _planet_, just about half of it, the other part is democratic. Juvia didn't even think she would get him, she attacked him when we met, actually. Plus, he is a prince of the human colony here. Thankfully their laws allowed him to marry me."

"Really?" Gajeel thought about the first time he met Levy and he attacked her – he still had no memory of it and for it he was thankful, he didn't want a memory of hurting her in any way – and there Juvia was, talking about attacking her now husband. "And it led to…"

"Happiness." She stroked her belly tenderly. "You think you don't deserve it, right? Being happy?" Juvia asked and when he averted his red eyes to some random place on the wall on his left, she kept talking. "I thought the same thing when I met Gray-sama, you know?" Gajeel returned his gaze to the hologram.

"What made you change your mind?"

She took a few steps closer to him and for a moment it was like the Uatari was really there. "For years and years we were controlled and we did awful things." Juvia raised her left hand, which had a glove on and she carefully took it out, showing him her mechanic hand. "We were taken from our planets, we lost our limbs and we were sent to fight a war we never wanted to exist. It is not our fault, it never was.

"We could've turned the blind eye and keep being soldiers, but we decided to try and put an end to the war, we fought our commands and we stole secrets from the Army that could reveal its plans, even though it's two years old. Even when we were not supposed to, we tried to help." The blunette stopped for a moment. "We were forced to fight and we did because that's what we were trained to do. Now, we will fight to protect the ones we love and this fight," she put her mechanic hand over her stomach, "this time it's something we'll _want_ to do. Those men outside, Juvia would give her life for them. This child? The same. And don't think Juvia didn't see the way you looked at Levy-san a minute ago." Gajeel stared at her hologram with intensity, unsure of what to say.

"We know what war does and she's… untouched by it. She never saw a real fight and…" The cyborg said. "She is a kind human and I don't want her to…"

"You want to protect her." Juvia smiled softly. "You care for her, otherwise you wouldn't even think if she was touched or not by the war. And it's okay," she reassured him when a little bit of panic appeared in is red eyes "I know you never had the opportunity to feel this way, but now you do and, like Juvia said earlier, you think you don't deserve it, but you do; more than anyone Juvia knows, because you've earned it. We both did."

"I can't believe I am having this conversation with you." Gajeel groaned in annoyance.

"Juvia didn't think she would have a conversation with you _at all_." The blunette chuckled. "But really, Gajeel-kun. You should let _her_ decide if you are worthy or not and Juvia has a feeling that she will think the same way as Juvia does."

"You don't know her."

"No, but Juvia knows the way she looked at you because Juvia has seen the same look on her face when she looks at her husband."

**#**

Silver Fullbuster lost no time in sending a ship that was in a neighbor planet to Fiore to take them to Yukia and it would arrive a week after that first conversation and once they got into the ship, it would take a month to reach their destination and during that week of preparation, Gajeel avoided Levy and she had no idea why. Had she done something? After talking to Juvia that day, he had gone to his room and locked himself inside.

The mechanic thought over her actions, what she had said, what he had done, any clue of why he wasn't talking to her like before, he even lost his lessons on mechanics and spent a lot of time punching bags at his 'gym' and she knew better than to go there.

A day before the Yukian ship arrive, though, Levy cornered him in his room after taking a little bit of liquid courage to go there. She knocked on his door and when he didn't answer, the human got frustrated and punched the override code to enter the room. How dared he ignore her?

"Gajeel!" She pretty much yelled when the door opened and stop on her tracks when she saw that, apparently, he had just gotten out of the shower and had a towel hanging from his shoulders and his usual black pants on and, was, of course, shirtless. Well, she had wanted to have this conversation with him fully clothed, but this would have to do. On the back of her mind, she congratulated herself for the fact that neither the arm nor the leg showed any sign of rust even after he clearly got wet. You gotta love Yuur oil.

The man, on the other hand, seemed annoyed by her presence there. "What?"

"Hey, don't talk to me like that!" Levy said, outraged. "I haven't been anything other than nice to you and you have been ignoring me the whole week, so I came here to see what crawled inside your ass and died!" Oh, so, maybe she drank _a little_ too much. "We are about to get into a ship for a month and you'll be the only person I know there and I would very much to have you actually talking to me, thank you very much."

Raising an eyebrow, Gajeel sniffed the air and his stance changed to one of amusement. "You are drunk."

"I drank, but I am not drunk." She huffed and stepped closer to him. "I am… a little tipsy but I am fully aware of e-ve-ry-thing." She poked at his chest at every syllable.

Utterly amused, Gajeel chuckled while feeling his annoyance go away. "Come on, I'll take you to your room so you can sleep it off." He reached for her arm, but she yanked it off of his grasp and Gajeel frowned with her reaction.

"_No_. I want to know why you have been avoiding me." Levy narrowed her eyes and, after seeing him flinch a little, she spoke softly. "Did I do something?" He shook his head. "Then why?"

"It's my business."

She touched his forearm. "Hey, _you_ are my business and I would very much like to help you. You seem troubled."

He sighed in frustration. "You want to talk, talk and talk!"

"I do, yes." Levy nodded. What was wrong with talking? She liked to know what other people were feeling and it was the key for good comprehension between two beings and she and Gajeel had been communicating just fine until that moment.

"I am not good with words. Not in this matter." Gajeel took off his translator and then reached for the earpiece in her ear, taking it off as well as she just waited to see what he was going to do next. The tension between them became very much more palpable when he returned his gaze to hers. Something had shifted between them, something important.

He took a step closer to her and Levy's breath got caught on her throat with the way he stared at her and with his proximity she could scent the musky smell of his skin mixed with oil for his bot parts and something that was unique _Gajeel_.

The Draconis pointed to his throat and then to hers, shaking his head afterwards. Levy frowned, but nodded (really, without their translators they couldn't say anything without sounding absolutely nonsensical to the other) reached for her hand and just held it for a moment – already used to his own way of doing things, she just waited.

Sighing, Gajeel put her hand on his chest, just above his heart and then he started to speak. _In Draconis_! She tried to reach for her translator, but he just grabbed her by the waist and pulled her close to him, her body molding onto his and the movement earned a surprised gasp from the blunette and for her cheeks begin to get warmer.

The Cyborg, then, with his robotic arm, touched her face and lifted so they could look at each other's eyes once more and when he started to speak in Draconis once again, she _understood_.

He was saying thank you, he was saying that he started to live again, he was saying that he was _glad_ to be alive.

It shouldn't move her so much, a man to speak in a language she didn't comprehend, but they always understood each other and that time was no different, especially when his eyes were so sincere instead of wielding its usual wildness.

He grabbed her hand and put it flat above his heart – his hand above hers – curling it into a fist and then moving their hands to her own chest. "Yours. Levy." He said it and she understood it because that time he had spoken in Fiorian, when did he learn that? But that was not the point, the point was that he was trying to say something deep to her.

Levy didn't even know she was crying until he let go of her hand and gently dried her tears away and she put a hand over his. "I understand." She sobbed, putting her own hand on his cheek. "I understand you." The blunette whispered and Gajeel's red eyes shifted for a second to her lips and then back to her eyes and Levy could feel her heart started beating even faster in anticipation. "Just kiss me, you silly man." She whispered.

And as if he understood her words, Gajeel leaned in and touched her lips with his and for a moment, the world went still, but when she wrapped her arms around his shoulders and he tightened his arm on her waist, their lips started to move in synchrony in a slow pace, but when he coaxed her mouth open and their tongues met, it was as if there was liquid fire inside her veins.

Levy wasn't one to hook up with someone just because and by being that way, she wasn't exactly too experienced with the carnal matters, but Gajeel seemed to bring out the side of her that she didn't know it existed; the way he kissed her like it was his last opportunity to do so, like he wanted to be one with her forever was so overwhelming that she had her head spinning and when they finally stopped kissing, both breathless, Gajeel rested his forehead on hers, eyes closed while he tried to control himself and muttering something in Draconis and she understood that he was amazed by how well they fit.

"Yes." Levy said, caressing his long hair before kissing him once again. "I feel the same way."

**#**

The next day when Levy woke up in Gajeel's bed – fully clothed – and with his arms around her, the blunette couldn't believe in what happened the night before, of how he whispered kind words in Draconis (words that she didn't understand completely, but damn her if they weren't the sexiest thing she's ever heard) while he kissed her over and over again, then, when he started gently bite her neck, Levy had clawed her nails into his back and moaned loudly, which only seemed to make Gajeel feel more enthusiastic about his task and after gently kissing her he had laid her on the bed and for a moment she thought he would try to go further with her, but he just snuggled with her.

When he woke up, they resumed their kissing for a few minutes before they needed to get up to prepare themselves for the trip and when they put back their translators back and Levy was about to leave his room, Gajeel caught her by the wrist when he spoke:

"I… I meant it. Last night, that is."

Levy smiled softly and stepped closer to him, grabbing the hand he caught her with and putting it as a fist on top of her heart and then moved it to be on top of his chest. "Yours."

He nodded and Levy tip toed to kiss him and she could swear that he had a small smile on his lips. "I am not good at… caring." Gajeel informed her. "I have never done this before. Whatever _this_ is."

"Me neither, not like this anyway." Levy blushed and bit her lower lip. "I guess that we'll teach each other as we go." She pointed over her shoulder towards the door. "But we really have to get ready. The ship will be arriving after lunch and I still have things to pack and so do you." Gajeel agreed and after one last kiss, he let her go and once Levy was out of his room, she put a hand over her lips and started to do the silliest victory dance in the Universe.

"I can hear you out there." Gajeel yelled from inside the room making Levy stop mid dance and get beet red before running to her own room, knowing that Gajeel was probably laughing at her reaction.

**#**

The Yukian ship was big and the captain, even if he had no idea why he had to pick the couple at the planet, was nice and instructed the crew to not say a word or to ask Levy and Gajeel about their mission. Even though they trusted them enough, the cyborg chose to stay with the disc on him at all times, just like Levy; he insisted on sharing quarters with her, to her absolute embarrassment but she didn't say otherwise.

That was three weeks ago and they were almost reaching Yukia and Levy knew that Gajeel was excited to see his old friend but tried not to let it out, but after three weeks of being together _together_, Levy knew even more about her lover.

Oh yes, lover. Just a week before, the human and the Draconis consummated their relationship and she couldn't be happier to have shared that moment with him. Even though Gajeel looked rough on the outside, when he was making love to her, the man was gently and careful not to hurt her in any way. She was truly in love, wasn't she?

Blushing, Levy looked up to the sleeping Draconis and smiled when she saw his face in such a peaceful manner, without his usual frown. She touched the piercings on his chin, then nose and finally the ones on his eyebrows. She had read about those in a book about the Draconis'; it said that they did it when their children reached the age of five, which was the age Gajeel told her he was taken. It was a ritual of some sort and at least the Phantom didn't take that away from him.

Seeing him start to wake up, Levy removed her hand away from his piercings and waited for him to be fully awake. She felt him pull her closer to him and murmur something in his mother tongue. "Good morning to you too." She chuckled and kissed him, which led him to turn them around so he was on top of her, kissing her while she giggled in between kisses and reached for the bedside table to reach for their translators. After they stopped kissing, Levy offered him his earpiece and he put it on.

"We will be arriving in a few days." Levy touched his cheek in a soft manner.

"I know." He nuzzled his face on the juncture of her neck and shoulder. "Then you'll be busy trying to recover the data from both discs and Juvia will be a pain in my ass. She calls us every day."

Levy chuckled and started to caress his hair. "She's worried about her pregnancy and with us getting closer and closer to Yukia."

"Yeah, she needs to take care of her own business." He told her. "And her business is getting bigger, did you see her yesterday?"

"Gajeel!" She slapped his upper arm and Gajeel laughed, his face still hid, but Levy felt his smile. "She's having a _baby_, of course she'll get bigger. And you better not tell her that, not even my mechanic limbs are a match for a pregnant woman's wrath."

"Noted." Gajeel was about to say something more when the ship seemed to be hit by something and they were thrown to the wall, his arms around the human while he tried to shield her from whatever. "Fuck!" He yelled when the shaking stopped. "Levy? Are you okay?" Gajeel inspectioned her with his eyes at the same time that an alarm started to sound and the lights turned red.

"Yes." Her voice was shaky as she put her arms above her naked chest. "What was that? What's happening?"

The Draconis was already on his feet, searching for his clothes and throwing Levy her own. "They are coming." He put his pants on and saw that she had done the same and was putting a loose shirt.

"What? How did they even know where…?" Levy asked, looking scared.

"Really? _Now_ is the time you won't come up with the Phantoms intercepting our calls with some kind of high-tech thingy?" Gajeel grabbed his old memory disc and after seeing that she was dressed, he put on his own shirt and took her hand on his before punching the code of the door and pulled her with him outside the room.

It was chaos, the crew was running around telling about three war ships coming their way while the red light and the alarm were still at it, as they ran in between them all.

"Gajeel!" Levy called his name, but he didn't stop pulling her "They will destroy this ship to find me and the disc." He stopped in the middle of the hall, while people ran by their side and he took the memory disc from his pocked and gave it to her. "You have to find your way out of here right now, go to an escape pod and go to Yukia. They probably think that the disc is still with me, I don't know. But we've got to try to get you out!" He looked around, trying to find the fastest way to get her to an escape pod.

Levy frowned. "_What?_ I am not leaving you."

"Oh, yes you are." Gajeel tried to pull her, but she didn't let him. "Dammit, Levy!" He said frustrated. "You shouldn't be here, stuck in this ship with that fucking army coming to destroy!"

The human shook her head. "You stay, I stay." He tried to protest, but she put a hand over his mouth and stared deep into his eyes and spoke softly. "I am _not_ leaving you."

Gajeel let go of her hand and cupped her face in his hands and rested his forehead on hers. "You'll be the death of me."

She chuckled, holding the tears that were threatening to fall. "This time I think it'll be the other way around." Levy kissed his lips.

The cyborg narrowed his eyes. "Not funny."

"Too soon?" She bit her lower lip, trying to hold on her laughter (that if she let it out, would be a little bit on the hysterical side; they were facing imminent death, after all).

"Yes." He scowled.

"But really." She grabbed his hand and curled it into a fist and put it above her chest and then moved it to his. "Yours, remember?"

He did the same movement as she did and said, with a voice full of emotion. "Yours." Gajeel wrapped his arms around her small frame and, even when the red lights were still at it, the alarm still echoed and people still ran around them, all they saw was each other facing whatever destiny they could get, as long they had each other.

**#**

**AN:** I _refuse_ to think they died, so, think that Gray sent some ships to escort them to Yukia and those ships saved them.

Anyway, I hope you liked. Just a reminder that English is not my first language, therefore, sorry about the mistakes. :)

07/29/2014 ~ **BonneyQ**


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